Chapter Eight

She hadn’t expected the blindness, but there was no doubt that something was now covering her eyes. It didn’t affect her that much since closing her eyes only made sense. It was the loss of the wind that finally made this real.

It had been caressing her skin gently, but now it was cut off from her, and she felt like she was missing a limb. Sure, she needed air to breath, and the wind was air moving, but there was a subtle difference between them. She would prefer to breathe the wind any day and go without air than to breathe air and never feel the caress of the wind again.

Whatever was holding her was beginning to shrink. She could feel it coming closer to her body. The air around her became thin as if it were being sucked away.

The desire to take a deep breath had her almost choking. Not being able to use her mouth was hindering her. She couldn’t breathe deep enough just using her nose. Red spots began to appear behind her eyelids as she felt herself start to black out. She screamed at herself to stay awake.

Her heart started slowing down as she tried to smile. A picture of Lucca flashed before her.

“Hold on menace.”

She felt her cheeks try to lift in joy as she heard his voice. Who knew she could remember it down to the way he wrapped the word menace around his tongue?

There was a screech that brought her out of her fantasy. What was happening? It was hard to concentrate as the air was sucked out. There was a true vacuum occurring around her. Life had been hard, but she was sorry to be giving it up.

She was falling. A pair of arms caught her as she heard a tearing sound, air and wind rushed at her. The object over her mouth was pulled away, and she took big breaths.

“Lucca?” Her voice was high and reedy, but there was hope ringing in it.

“Menace.” His voice caressed her as he took the blindfold off.

Her body trembled as she turned her head to look at him. She sniffed refusing to cry as her arms went around his neck.

“One demon down,” he whispered into her ear. His arms tightened around her.

“Demon?” She turned her head to look in the direction he was looking. It looked like a demon one of the classical ones with horns and hooves.

“How? Why?”

“There’s a theory that long before humans walked the Earth, there were demons, the things that people only see in nightmares. I never gave it much thought but that,” he nodded toward the demon, “may give that theory a lot of credence.”

She nodded her head against his shoulder. If this was going to become a thing, him carrying her, she was going to get adjusted to it.

“Can we go back?”

“That depends on you. Did you happen to grab that rock you touched?”

She looked up and rolled her eyes at him. How was she supposed to… her hand went into her bra where she felt an object with sharp edges sticking into her breasts. There was a rock, not the one she touched this one looked like an emerald. She held it up for him to see.

“Lucky Emerald.”

She blushed and ducked her head. There was no comeback, almost dying seemed to have calmed her down for a while.

“Will this get us back?”

“Let’s see.”

He wrapped his hand around hers.

“Close your eyes and think of home.”

She smiled and closed her eyes.

His booming laughter made her open her eyes. They were standing in the foyer of his house.

“I didn’t mean that literally, menace.”

She blushed but ignored him. She’d rather be there than heading for that cave. Now that they had gone back to the beginning of the world maybe he would forget the cave.

He put her down, and she moved away about to come at him with a snappy retort when her eyes grew big, and she clutched her stomach.

“Run.” She choked on the word as she fell to the ground. She flipped to her stomach trying to crawl away.

“Run, Lucca. Save yourself.”

He was kneeling at her side trying to figure out what was happening when her body stretched and tore. A creature had taken over her body distorting it until she couldn’t be seen inside of it.

“Tempest!” He looked around the room, but he couldn’t find her, there was only an animal standing on two legs.

It roared and came for him. He prepared himself to sever its head from its shoulders. He pulled his symphor and ran at it. A hand pulled him backward. What the hell?

“That creature is Tempest. You kill it; you kill her.”

He ducked and rolled as the creature tried to step on him. Considering it was over ten feet tall and had feet the size of a tiny village, being stepped on would have hurt. Where was his mate? Why couldn’t he see her inside of the creature? He got a little closer.

The creature caught him by his ankle. It twirled him in the air and threw him at the far wall. The sickening sound of his body hitting made him want to curl up in a ball and nurse his wounds. Instead, he jumped up because the creature was determined to kill him. He was on the defense running and hiding to stay away as he tried to come up with a plan to subdue the creature without killing it.

“Come on you ugly son of a… I shouldn’t talk about your mom that way, but if she’s as ugly as you.” He shivered and jumped over the couch. They were now in the large room he had for when the whole family was together.

“Say something. I want my menace back. You don’t get to keep her. Are you mute or are you just not from this planet?”

It reached out and slapped him upside the head. He felt dizzy and was unable to see for a minute. At this rate, he was going to be the one dying. He had a plan, but he didn’t like it.

“I’m sorry menace, I never wanted to hurt you.”

The creature sprung at him knocking him down on his back. When it leaned over him, he pulled his symphor and stabbed it in the abdomen. It reared back and hit the floor. He pulled out three ties of slim gold rope. He tied his feet and hands using the last one to connect his feet and hands then he sat back on his knees trying to catch his breath.

His door flew open banging against the wall. He turned his head. Yep, it was his brothers.

“Lucca! You prepared my favorite food. All is forgiven.”

He turned his head from Mick to the creature lying on the floor. A look of horror was trying to take over its face. Mick slowly changed into a more primitive beast. It rubbed its stomach as its teeth descended.

The creature was thrashing around.

“That’s my brother. He says he hasn’t eaten one of your kind in centuries. He thought you were all dead he is happy I went out of my way to prepare for him a gourmet meal.

He stood up and backed away. “He’s all yours brother.”

The creature made a noise that felt like a plea for help. His body started to change disengaging from Tempest. Lucca pulled his symphor out, and it left Tempest lying broken on the floor.

Mick took a step towards it. The creature flew up into the air before finding a way out the house. “My brother says if he catches you anywhere on the Earth, he will eat you,” Lucca screamed after it making it move faster.

Damon rushed to Tempest trying to save her life. Lucca fell to his knees by her side taking off the ties that held her. Mick reclaimed his body. There was an air of silence they all knew she wouldn’t make it.

Dante strode in and looked at his brothers. They moved back to give him room to work. His hands went over her pressing into the wound. A white light came from them and made its way into her body. When he moved back her eyes were open.

“What happened?”

Lucca’s shoulders collapsed in relief. “You are a magnet for trouble.”

“Not me, someone tell him.” Her eyes closed. “I’m so tired.”

He picked her up and looked at Dante.

“She won’t die today, but she still has evil inside of her. She will die if that isn’t taken care off.”

“Can I take her to bed?”

He nodded. “Lucca, you need to eat. She needs your energy to fight. If you don’t eat, then neither of you will make it.”

He disappeared taking Mick and Damon with him.

“Where are you going?”

“To take you to bed.”

“Someone doesn’t listen. You need to eat.”

“You’re tired.”

“I’d rather be tired and alive than weak and dead.”

“I don’t think that last part is possible.” He took her into the kitchen as much as he hated to admit it, he hadn’t eaten in a while.

“What are you making?”

“Breakfast.”

“Why?”

“Because you need soft foods.”

“You need protein.”

“Did I forget to mention the sixteen-ounce porterhouse I was making too?”

She laughed softly. She really could grow to like him.

“You’re a nut.”

“My picture is under nut in the dictionary. In fact, they list all the nuts but not in alphabetical order. There's Lucca, then peanut, walnut, a coffee bean nut.”

“Coffee bean is not a nut.”

He sat at the table with a huge plate in front of him and placed a forkful of eggs in front of her.

“Are you sure? I think coffee bean is a nut.” He took a bite then fed her another bite.

“It’s not a nut.”

“I won’t believe you until you get well enough to research it.” Her cheeks hurt from taking bites and trying not to smile at his silliness.

“Can I have a bite of your steak?”

He growled before giving her a wink. He held the steak in front of her feeding it to her. When they were done, he put everything in the sink and picked her up.

“What is it about you menace that I would leave a sink full of dirty dishes to take care of you?” He whispered into her ear as he carried her upstairs.

“I’m special,” she answered with a yawn.

She truly was special. His way of life was being changed by a pint-size female. He always felt responsible for his brethren. He would die so they could live, but he always knew they could take care of themselves. Tempest couldn’t take care of herself, and it just made her more special to him.

He wanted to be her white knight in shining armor. He grimaced, he was more like a black knight in shining armor, but she didn’t seem to mind. He got her changed into a nightgown before he placed her on the bed and tucked the covers around her.

The world had changed, and it was changing again. He shook his head because there was a good chance that when the time came, he wouldn’t be giving Tempest up.

She resisted sleep until she knew he was asleep. If she were going to run, she would have to do it now. It was her last chance. She waited flexing her feet waiting for them to find the floor and run like all the hounds of hell were after her.

She didn’t move, and slowly her body began to relax. It only made sense to run, but she was tired. She needed to stay and take care of Lucca. He didn’t have enough sense to run when his life was in danger. White knights in shining armor were like that. She gave a sigh; she would have to make sure he stayed alive.

With a small stretch, she snuggled into his arms. They both slept dreaming of how to keep the other alive.